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Tuesday, November 14, 2006
The Fort Wayne NAACP Election headed in a new direction?
Still waiting on the results of the local NAACP election. Let's hope so, but I'm not feeling it. I'm afraid we are going backward in Fort Wayne more toward this type of attitude.
First off, you are to be commended for your blog. This method of discourse has great potential for open, honest discussion - something the community in general and the Black community in particular needs more of. Frankly, I'm even amused to see comments from the person CLAIMING to be Vince Robinson. Even comments from people who lack the courage to identify themselves can be revealing and insightful.
As to the NAACP election: as I told Rev. Mike Latham, as I publically told local branch members at the nominating meeting, and as I told the media repeatedly, I could live the rest of my life very happily WITHOUT being president of the local NAACP. Look, I've published my own newspaper every week for going on six years now - I've been Ink twice. I don't crave the attention. But when the time came, I was among the very few people who was WILLING to run and who was ELIGIBLE due to the fact that I maintained my membership despite my obvious and vocal dissastifaction with the current president.
Unseating an incumbent NAACP branch president is extremely difficult - no matter how poorly that president has performed. A volunteer poll worker confirmed that the vast majority of the people who voted to re-elect Mike Latham were members of the church that he pastors. No surprise. Latham and the branch secretary (who is also his church secretary and a member of his congregation) maintain the membership list and therefore decide who votes and who doesn't - and in fact, a fair number of people were turned away from voting. Again, no surprise. And the branch has a reputation for using donor money to buy memberships around election time. Sadly, no surprise.
That Mike Latham, despite every advantage, won by just 9 votes - that WAS a surprise. The highest-ever voter turnout was a surprise. And the level of interest in the mainstream community was a huge surprise. But Mike still won, and that may cause people who hoped for his defeat to further distance themselves from the branch rather than participate. However, we can't afford to make that mistake anymore.
As a Black community in conservative Fort Wayne, Indiana, many of us are fed up with our lack of progress as a people. We lag behind on so many indicators that it's ridiculous, and the impotence of the local NAACP is partly to blame.
Unfortunately, as anxious for progress as many of us are, this IS a PROCESS. The infrastructure that we have depended on for decades - including the NAACP, the Urban League, and, dare I say it, the Black church - has eroded in this community. As a result, we are FORCED to take the LONG VIEW. If we don't begin to think and work strategically; if we don't start projecting, planning and plotting years into the future; and if we don't put economic empowerment at the head of our agenda, we are doomed to fall even further behind.
The fact of the matter is that it's going to take YEARS to reform our local NAACP. And while many people in the Black community will be disappointed by the outcome of the election, this IS the outcome. And, taking the long view, it's not as bad as it seems. Mike Latham is now exposed. He has no more excuses. He can't credibly blame the membership for the branch's failures. He can't credibly blame the media. He can't credibly claim that he doesn't know what the issues are. He's backed into a corner of putting up, or shutting up and packing up. I'd like to think that he can meet the challenge - and that we can help.
Over the next two years, we have to support Mike but we also have to watchdog Mike. We have to encourage Mike but we most also have the courage to criticize Mike. We have to follow Mike's lead but we also have to lead Mike in the direction we need the NAACP to head.
Wow. Thank you for responding on this blog. First, I would like to say, I agree with your statement, "[i]f we don't begin to think and work strategically; if we don't start projecting, planning and plotting years into the future; and if we don't put economic empowerment at the head of our agenda, we are doomed to fall even further behind."
And the fact, "[a]s a Black community in conservative Fort Wayne, Indiana, many of us are fed up with our lack of progress as a people."
But, what I don't agree with is that this lack of progress is from Mr. Latham leadership of the local NAACP.
Mr. Latham plays his game and you play your game. In other words, Mr. Latham rallied his people and you rallied your people and his gamemanship won out. That's okay if that is how you conduct business. But there is a higher ground, that others folks are playing and that is the game of life. And if you watched the emotions of Andrew Young seeing the groundbreaking for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. than you will understand, that leadership is a great sacrifice and takes on a greater meaning than a moment to pat yourself on the back.
Those before us made great sacrifices, and we will never measure up. But we can do better for the ourselves and future generations. And in doing better we support the mission of the organization and can drive it toward it goals or by creating new goals.
Mr. Latham is not the organization, he is human and if he is not taking the organziation to where supose to go it is up to the membership to take him down, or remove him from office. And now is the time to stand behind the organization and mobilize the people for that purpose.
The media was presence to show the inhouse fighting and that has worked to the advantage of the NAACP, based on the statement you made about being the largest turnout. Mr. Latham served his purpose and you served your purpose, now it time to focus on the purpose of the organization. Keep up the momentum, keep the eye on the prize and our community is not doom to self-destructure
I just wanted to say, I did not find anything humorous about the antic of individual or individuals using your name. I still don't, your name was used for personal attacks. The intent was to discredit me in the community, insinuate that you knew me, and to cause a rift between us. This was intentional and did with malice.
I hope that you can be as forgiving to Mr. Latham as you are for those individuals who used your name to attack me. I look forward to helping the organization.
I find the motives and antics of those who have been using my name funny only because they are so transparently juvenile that they are doomed to fail. But that doesn't mean that I forgive them for their cowardly behavior. I just leave it to a higher power to deal with them.
As far as Rev. Latham, I bear him no ill will. I have, and will continue to work with him, if only because it's the right thing to do.
In the heat of the campaign, Michael told the media and members of the NAACP (in a last minute mailing) that I was not active in the organization. This was a desperate and obvious lie. Not more than three months ago, the local NAACP gave me an award for helping plan and organize its most successful fundraising banquet in history (the Freedom Fund/Image Awards Program held this past August). Mike was careful to send his attack letter on OLD stationary so that he didn't have to use the new letterhead that I created and paid for - if he had used it, that would have immediately exposed the lie that I wasn't helping the local branch.
But most troubling, despite the fact that Ink has given the NAACP more POSITIVE coverage than any other media in town, Michael attacked my business. Earlier this year, I designed and created the posters, flyers and banners for his United For A Change Program. I did this at no cost to the branch. In fact, one of the banners hangs in Scott's Food & Pharmacy's Decatur Road store where the branch collects hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars each week. But when I dared criticize his leadership, Mike asked Scott's to stop advertising with us.
I'm not sure whether you are an NAACP member. If not, I hope you do join. I will certainly maintain my membership, and I will not START helping the NAACP, as Mike fraudently suggests, but I will CONTINUE to try to help the branch because we still need this organization.
I'm sorry if you inferred that I blame our low-functioning NAACP for the community's lack of progress. I do NOT solely blame the local NAACP, but it's lack of gravitas does play SOME role. In 2006, Black people are still harassed by police in Fort Wayne, and Black officers in the department are still unfairly targeted for dicipline and underrepresented in the department, especially in higher ranking positions. In 2006, Black students still lag behind in our local school districts. And in 2006, Black businesses get less than their fair share of local government business - in fact, they get NO share.
We need the NAACP and I hope you and your bloggers will join and help improve this organization.
When do you expect the results will be known? This is an important issue for Fort Wayne.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
So what are you saying, that Vice Robinson represents this? He's what we need. Let's get off of this beaten down rhetoric girl!
ReplyDeleteI thought she was saying Vince would CHANGE this..That he IS what we need. Which is it?
ReplyDeleteIndependent,
ReplyDeleteFirst off, you are to be commended for your blog. This method of discourse has great potential for open, honest discussion - something the community in general and the Black community in particular needs more of. Frankly, I'm even amused to see comments from the person CLAIMING to be Vince Robinson. Even comments from people who lack the courage to identify themselves can be revealing and insightful.
As to the NAACP election: as I told Rev. Mike Latham, as I publically told local branch members at the nominating meeting, and as I told the media repeatedly, I could live the rest of my life very happily WITHOUT being president of the local NAACP. Look, I've published my own newspaper every week for going on six years now - I've been Ink twice. I don't crave the attention. But when the time came, I was among the very few people who was WILLING to run and who was ELIGIBLE due to the fact that I maintained my membership despite my obvious and vocal dissastifaction with the current president.
Unseating an incumbent NAACP branch president is extremely difficult - no matter how poorly that president has performed. A volunteer poll worker confirmed that the vast majority of the people who voted to re-elect Mike Latham were members of the church that he pastors. No surprise. Latham and the branch secretary (who is also his church secretary and a member of his congregation) maintain the membership list and therefore decide who votes and who doesn't - and in fact, a fair number of people were turned away from voting. Again, no surprise. And the branch has a reputation for using donor money to buy memberships around election time. Sadly, no surprise.
That Mike Latham, despite every advantage, won by just 9 votes - that WAS a surprise. The highest-ever voter turnout was a surprise. And the level of interest in the mainstream community was a huge surprise. But Mike still won, and that may cause people who hoped for his defeat to further distance themselves from the branch rather than participate. However, we can't afford to make that mistake anymore.
As a Black community in conservative Fort Wayne, Indiana, many of us are fed up with our lack of progress as a people. We lag behind on so many indicators that it's ridiculous, and the impotence of the local NAACP is partly to blame.
Unfortunately, as anxious for progress as many of us are, this IS a PROCESS. The infrastructure that we have depended on for decades - including the NAACP, the Urban League, and, dare I say it, the Black church - has eroded in this community. As a result, we are FORCED to take the LONG VIEW. If we don't begin to think and work strategically; if we don't start projecting, planning and plotting years into the future; and if we don't put economic empowerment at the head of our agenda, we are doomed to fall even further behind.
The fact of the matter is that it's going to take YEARS to reform our local NAACP. And while many people in the Black community will be disappointed by the outcome of the election, this IS the outcome. And, taking the long view, it's not as bad as it seems. Mike Latham is now exposed. He has no more excuses. He can't credibly blame the membership for the branch's failures. He can't credibly blame the media. He can't credibly claim that he doesn't know what the issues are. He's backed into a corner of putting up, or shutting up and packing up. I'd like to think that he can meet the challenge - and that we can help.
Over the next two years, we have to support Mike but we also have to watchdog Mike. We have to encourage Mike but we most also have the courage to criticize Mike. We have to follow Mike's lead but we also have to lead Mike in the direction we need the NAACP to head.
Vince Robinson
Wow. Thank you for responding on this blog. First, I would like to say, I agree with your statement,
ReplyDelete"[i]f we don't begin to think and work strategically; if we don't start projecting, planning and plotting years into the future; and if we don't put economic empowerment at the head of our agenda, we are doomed to fall even further behind."
And the fact, "[a]s a Black community in conservative Fort Wayne, Indiana, many of us are fed up with our lack of progress as a people."
But, what I don't agree with is that this lack of progress is from Mr. Latham leadership of the local NAACP.
Mr. Latham plays his game and you play your game. In other words, Mr. Latham rallied his people and you rallied your people and his gamemanship won out. That's okay if that is how you conduct business. But there is a higher ground, that others folks are playing and that is the game of life. And if you watched the emotions of Andrew Young seeing the groundbreaking for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. than you will understand, that leadership is a great sacrifice and takes on a greater meaning than a moment to pat yourself on the back.
Those before us made great sacrifices, and we will never measure up. But we can do better for the ourselves and future generations. And in doing better we support the mission of the organization and can drive it toward it goals or by creating new goals.
Mr. Latham is not the organization, he is human and if he is not taking the organziation to where supose to go it is up to the membership to take him down, or remove him from office. And now is the time to stand behind the organization and mobilize the people for that purpose.
The media was presence to show the inhouse fighting and that has worked to the advantage of the NAACP, based on the statement you made about being the largest turnout. Mr. Latham served his purpose and you served your purpose, now it time to focus on the purpose of the organization. Keep up the momentum, keep the eye on the prize and our community is not doom to self-destructure
Mr. Robinson:
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to say, I did not find anything humorous about the antic of individual or individuals using your name. I still don't, your name was used for personal attacks. The intent was to discredit me in the community, insinuate that you knew me, and to cause a rift between us. This was intentional and did with malice.
I hope that you can be as forgiving to Mr. Latham as you are for those individuals who used your name to attack me. I look forward to helping the organization.
Independent,
ReplyDeleteI find the motives and antics of those who have been using my name funny only because they are so transparently juvenile that they are doomed to fail. But that doesn't mean that I forgive them for their cowardly behavior. I just leave it to a higher power to deal with them.
As far as Rev. Latham, I bear him no ill will. I have, and will continue to work with him, if only because it's the right thing to do.
In the heat of the campaign, Michael told the media and members of the NAACP (in a last minute mailing) that I was not active in the organization. This was a desperate and obvious lie. Not more than three months ago, the local NAACP gave me an award for helping plan and organize its most successful fundraising banquet in history (the Freedom Fund/Image Awards Program held this past August). Mike was careful to send his attack letter on OLD stationary so that he didn't have to use the new letterhead that I created and paid for - if he had used it, that would have immediately exposed the lie that I wasn't helping the local branch.
But most troubling, despite the fact that Ink has given the NAACP more POSITIVE coverage than any other media in town, Michael attacked my business. Earlier this year, I designed and created the posters, flyers and banners for his United For A Change Program. I did this at no cost to the branch. In fact, one of the banners hangs in Scott's Food & Pharmacy's Decatur Road store where the branch collects hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars each week. But when I dared criticize his leadership, Mike asked Scott's to stop advertising with us.
I'm not sure whether you are an NAACP member. If not, I hope you do join. I will certainly maintain my membership, and I will not START helping the NAACP, as Mike fraudently suggests, but I will CONTINUE to try to help the branch because we still need this organization.
I'm sorry if you inferred that I blame our low-functioning NAACP for the community's lack of progress. I do NOT solely blame the local NAACP, but it's lack of gravitas does play SOME role. In 2006, Black people are still harassed by police in Fort Wayne, and Black officers in the department are still unfairly targeted for dicipline and underrepresented in the department, especially in higher ranking positions. In 2006, Black students still lag behind in our local school districts. And in 2006, Black businesses get less than their fair share of local government business - in fact, they get NO share.
We need the NAACP and I hope you and your bloggers will join and help improve this organization.
Vince Robinson